Meet the vampires of “Vampire Syndrome”

Jack Wendell

Physical and Calendar Age: 19

Former Special Olympics champion sprinter and 400-meter sprint national record holder. Now the world’s fastest running Vampire, able to run at over 100mph for long distances. Retains his sincerity and good will towards others while living and interacting with a Vampire population generally not known for these qualities. Jack gets his first girlfriend in my trilogy’s second novel, “Vampire Conspiracy”. Jack’s heroism and unique abilities gradually become known to the world’s human Vampire population… and others. 😈

Damien Tepesh

Physical age: 39
Calendar age: 267

Chief Venator (law enforcer) of the United States region. Targets Jack for termination, as Venators traditionally do when they discover a new special-needs Vampire. Jack escapes two of Damien’s assassination attempts, eventually causing Damien to reconsider his position about Jack.  Damien enjoys fast cars and fast women. Damien has been married for over 250 years, and has had several mistresses as well.

Lilith Morrigan

Physical Age: 44
Calendar Age: 308

President of the world’s human Vampire Community. Breaks with her own Venator past by protecting Jack from her husband Damien. Feels some maternal instinct for Jack, but Lilith realizes she would not make the best adoptive mother for him. The conflicts over Jack push her relationship with Damien to a breaking point.

Zetania Vinescu

Physical Age: 25
Calendar Age: 135

Chief Venator of Romania. Summoned to Colorado by Damien, to help him hunt Jack. Lilith over-rides her husband and orders Zetania to protect Jack from Damien and the other Venators. Zetania gradually realizes Jack’s incredible potential, and discovers that Jack may be the key to help Zetania and the Romanian Vampires end their dispute with their most feared enemy… one way or another.

Ronald and Diane Pepper

Physical and Calender Ages: 40

Ron Pepper, Jack’s former Special Olympics coach, and his wife Diane are the closest that Jack has ever had to a real family. Damien and Lilith come to a rare agreement and choose the Peppers to be Jack’s new adoptive parents. Damien and Lilith turn the Peppers into Vampires and hire them as private investigators. The Peppers’ longtime hobby of investigating cattle mutilations becomes their full-time occupation, as they finally uncover the mystery of who is behind all of those mutilations.

Stella Reynolds

Physical Age: 27
Calendar Age: 71

Lilith’s presidential secretary and Damien’s current mistress. Over the last 250 years, Lilith has killed Damien’s previous four mistresses (and several other women who had short-term flings with Damien). The fact that Lilith hired Stella to be her secretary suggests a major change of strategy on her part, in which she plans to heighten her control and influence over Damien.

Gl’Ag

Physical Age: Mature Adult Male
Calendar Age: Over 25,000 years

The human vampires’ worst nightmare. And he realizes Jack’s true potential far more than any human Vampires can.

Fred Henderson

Physical Age: 41
Calendar Age: 266

Chief Mechanic, the MacGyver of Vampires. Owner of Roman Auto Salvage. His kindred’s predilection towards fast cars ensures Fred’s job security. Enjoys customizing pickup trucks and hunting deer. Owns a large collection of vintage film prints, including an original print of “Nosferatu” acquired during his vacation to Germany in 1922.

Tivor Sebestyén

Physical Age: 25
Calendar Age: 43

Mute autistic Vampire, native to the city of Debrecen, Hungary. Pursued by Hungarian Venators upon his change to human vampire in 1991, reported “missing, presumed dead” that same year. Confirmed sighted by several U.S. Venators in Colorado twenty years later. Possesses a unique superpower that could be dangerous to the human Vampire community.

Vampire Syndrome at the Tattered Cover

Spotlight Authors Rack – LoDo

Closeup – Highlands Ranch

Top Shelf – Highlands Ranch

Rack Row – LoDo

Closeup – LoDo

Rack – Highlands Ranch

Get the E.B.M. version of Vampire Syndrome (young adult version) printed on demand at Tattered Cover LoDo or any other bookstore/library in the world with an Espresso Book Machine.

Standard Print version and EBM version

The Uninvited

An intriguing story concept, and check out that cover art!

Runnin Off at the Mouth....

Kacey Miller is running from her past.

Sleepless, frustrated, and out-of-work, she stumbles onto a heinous crime scene. In the dead of night all residents of a brand-new retirement home in the balmy, sleepy south Florida town of Sunset Harbor have been murdered. The killers are everyday people from across the globe. None know why they did what they did, and—once apprehended—many take their own lives.

Desperate for work, and angst-ridden from having left her husband and newborn in a fit of postpartum depression a year earlier, Kacey writes up the story and lands a job as a local stringer—but all is not as it seems with the murderers…nor Kacey. The murderers are normal everyday people, with no history of past violence, and all are confused and vehemently disbelieving of their actions, tormented by inexplicable, supernatural forces. During her investigation, Kacey, like the murderers, is besieged by the same bizarre…

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May Meme

Disclaimer: The 325-hp Volvo S60R that Edward Cullen drives in the Twilight novels is actually the perfect car to represent his character. The S60R is a “sleeper” high-performance car that does not draw attention to itself, with more power and capability than is apparent to casual observers.

The Cadillac CTS-V’s (as shown above) that my character Lilith Morrigan (President of the Vampires) drives are also perfect representations of her character. Louder and a bit flashier than the aforementioned Volvo, driven by those not really concerned with what the average bystander thinks. After all, during the Great Depression, Lilith was driving a 1930 Cadillac V-16 convertible coupe, a car priced on par with a small house ($6,900, or $95,000 in today’s money). Cars change over the decades. Human (vampire) nature, not so much. 😈